Castle Freak

Ok this movie is good don't pay attention to the 4.8 rating or any of that this is a good movie. It is scary, disturbing, violent and horrific with a great performance from Jeffery Combs. The end was a very suspenseful scene one of the few that literally had me on the edge of my seat and the prostitute scene Well lets just say when I watch this again I'm going to fast forward through that part.

It is about a man and his wife and blind daughter who inherit a house but unbeknownst to them a relative is still living in the basement.

Stuart Gordon outdoes himself gone is the campy comedy of Re-Animator this time Gordon is out to scare the Living Sh*t out of you and I say he succeeded.

This is raw horror at its best!!

I just had the opportunity to sit down and revisit the 1995 "Castle Freak" movie; a movie that I have seen three or four times since it was originally released.

This 1995 movie titled "Castle Freak" is still a very enjoyable movie, even now in 2021. And that is also applicable even with the 2020 remake that they put out there. But truth be told Stuart Gordon's 1995 movie is just a tad better than the remake. Plus, the 1995 version has both Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton on the cast list, so what is there not to like?

The storyline, which is based on a H. P. Lovecraft story, is entertaining and enjoyable, despite of it being somewhat clichéd for a mid-1990s horror movie. But writers Stuart Gordon and Dennis Paoli did good jobs with constructing the storyline for "Castle Freak".

"Castle Freak" has good special effects, and they still hold up even now in 2021, 26 years after the movie was released.

Needless to say that it is because of Jeffrey Combs that I initially watched "Castle Freak" back in 1995, and it is still a treat to sit down and watch it this many years after.

My rating of "Castle Freak" lands on a six out of ten stars.

A family of three (Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Jessica Dollarhide) have inherited a castle, but have no plans to stay on. So they take inventory in order to sell off the property. But they aren't the only living relatives -- in the basement is the "castle freak", a deformed cannibal chained to the dungeon. If he gets loose, the family's heritage may become one of pure carnage.

Stuart Gordon ("Re-Animator") directs this film with a cast consisting of Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator") and Barbra Crampton ("Re-Animator"), produced by Charles Band ("Re-Animator"). Maybe you've caught on, but this is something of a "Re-Animator" reunion... with a few people missing. And a much lower production value (the film quality looks like 1970s issue or something from PBS during British comedy hour). For the most part, this is pretty solid film.

Combs is quite good, and one wonders why he's not given leading roles more often. Crampton is also good, and the blind girl (Jessica Dollarhide, in her only feature film) was remarkable. The freak? I have to say the makeup, effects and even the mannerisms were impressive. There's a scene where a prostitute meets her end... and they really went out of their way to show how horrific the freak could be.

The story isn't fast-paced or action-packed, so if you need to be constantly entertained, this may not be for you. But if you like a good development in your plot, I think you'd appreciate this lost treasure (definitely one of the lesser-seen Gordon horror films). I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have been, because I was half in the bag from drinking Scoresby Scotch (it's the connoisseur's Scotch)... but it kept me feeling pretty good. Thanks, Full Moon Features, for one of your better offerings.

Plot: A guy is kept hidden away in a dungeon by his mother and she beats him to a bloody pulp every night. A family of three (mother, father and daughter) inherits the castle. They come to look at it and shocking acts start to unravel themselves in and around the castle..

Acting: Jeffrey Combs star as the father and plays out the role like he would Hamlet or something. He is excellent. Never dull for a second. The guy playing "the Freak" also delivers solid work in portraying the hideously deformed and tragically lonely monster as he childly limpers around the cold castle in search of someone.

Form: It is a truly frightening experience this film. It contains some of the most violent scenes in cinema. But still it manages to let the emotions be dominant in most scenes including the scenes containing hard violence. It is a deeply tragic film in many ways and Stuart Gordon(director) plays with your feelings throughout the film. Many critics and others have used this against Gordon and his movies. I don`t think that is fear at all. I mean, do we ever ask an extreme painter why he is toying with our emotions?

Who is it for?: Well, as I mentioned before this is a pretty violent piece of film. It is not for kids and not for adults who don`t feel good about seeing killings and torture up close and personal. If you are, on the other hand, a fan of movies that do contain realistic violence as well as realistic emotions, camerawork and acting see it now.

Don`t hesitate. Oh, and if you are a fan of Stuart Gordon you simply have to see it!

Grade: 8 out of 10

I didn't have high expectations for this movie and it started off slow, but this turned into a pretty messed up movie. Not messed up in a Deliverance or Vulgar type of homosexual rape way but messed up as far as how the creature in the film is created, how come the creature is created, and how the creature kills others. Some pretty gory scenes featuring nudity with gore, dismemberment and mutilation for those who are into that sort of thing.

The movie had a low budget feel to it, which many horror/gore fans are into, but regardless, the creature looked pretty realistic and disfigured. My complaint with the creature is that when you are disfigured, handicapped and starved nearly to death, that would weaken you. It seemed to make this a superhuman disfigured person who can jump out of second story windows and still run to catch up to it's victim. He wouldn't be so quiet either, at least in his case.

It took nearly an hour for the movie to fully get going with the horror after the build up, but it turned into a pretty decent effort. I didn't even rent this movie, it came as a special feature to Deathbed on the DVD, and felt this movie was far better than the one they actually featured. I give this movie 7 of 10 stars.